Have you purchased your ticket to our second annual Holiday Spirits tasting event? Not only will you sip spirits from New York and beyond at this party, you'll cruise around the harbor on the Hornblower Infinity Cruise Ship while you listen to live music. So secure your entrance quickly -- as further temptation, we're announcing a new batch of distilleries that have been confirmed to participate, bringing the total number up to 30.

VIP and general admission tickets are now on sale for our second annual Holiday Spirits tasting event, a party at which you'll be able to sip spirits from New York and beyond while you cruise around the harbor on the Hornblower Infinity Cruise Ship. Today, we're announcing a new batch of distilleries that have been confirmed to participate in the fete.

Our inaugural Holiday Spirits event hit town in 2013, bringing together more than 25 distilleries, many of them local, for a festive cocktail party. We're getting ready to do it again: Holiday Spirits returns to New York City on Thursday, November 20, and this year, it includes a harbor cruise.

Dozens of spirits makers descended on Long Island City's Studio Square for our inaugural Holiday Spirits event, pouring sips of their tipples alongside wintery cocktails that showcased the flavor profiles of their wares. We were floored by the sheer diversity in New York's burgeoning distilling scene -- these craftsmen and women make everything from maple rye to sorel to beach plum gin to fig liqueur. We'd like each of the stellar pours to find a place in our home liquor cabinet, but from your votes, we anointed a fan favorite: Barrow's Intense Ginger Liqueur, which mixed a spiked eggnog ideal for the season.

Gene Marra is the distiller, founder and self-proclaimed "chief bottle washer" of Cooperstown Distillery, which just opened up shop in October of this year. A seasoned wine maker and restauranteur, Marra decided to try his hand at distilling in the mid-2000s. After a few classes and lots of research, he felt he was ready to jump in full throttle in 2010. The result is a roundup of spirits that are not only unique in flavor but also in bottling.

Several years ago, Joe Santos and Emil Jattne decided to leave their corporate careers behind to open up their own craft distillery. Formerly brand directors for Bacardi, both men had extensive experience in the industrial booze world. But when it came to crafting the libations by hand, they started from the ground up like anyone else. The duo sold their first batch of Brooklyn Gin just over three years ago. In anticipation of tonight's Holiday Spirits tasting event, we chatted with Jattne about what makes Brooklyn Gin special and why he and Santos chose to turn to craft distilling.

What are you doing tonight? Because we still have a few tickets left for Holiday Spirits, our inaugural tasting event showcasing dozens of New York's finest distilleries, and we think you should join us. This is Repeal Day, after all, and no better way to celebrate the end of Prohibition than by exercising your right to imbibe many different kinds of alcohol.

The time has come again to celebrate your imbibing ancestors who fought for your right to party. We're talking about Repeal Day, of course, which is tomorrow, December 5 -- and this year is extra special, because it's the 80th anniversary of the end of Prohibition. Here are five spots where you can raise a glass to the rectifying of that great mistake.

Brad Estabrooke opened Breuckelen Distilling in June 2009 after giving up a career as a bond trader. Several years later, his gin and whiskeys are known as some of the best in Brooklyn -- and they're sold around the country as well as internationally. We caught up with Estabrooke to learn more about the start of Breuckelen and what makes the products of his small-batch Sunset Park company special. We also wanted to know where the entrepreneur goes in the city to get a drink.